Formerly Heatherman Law

Estate Planning

Estate Planning doesn’t need to be a daunting task. You do have to confront the fact that you won’t live forever. And that’s not the most comfortable or fun task. But once you get past that, you’re in business—assuming you have the right adviser to guide you through the ins and outs of planning your estate and past potential pitfalls.

Why bother with an estate plan?

For starters, I’m guessing you’d rather decide how the money you’ve spent a lifetime earning gets distributed to your intended beneficiaries upon your death rather than having state law dictate that. But do you even remember who you’ve designated as beneficiaries on all your various investments? What about life insurance policies?

Then there’s the issue of taxes. Plan correctly with the help of an estate planning attorney who is up on the latest tax law and a lot less of your money and life insurance benefits will wind up going to the feds or the state.

Of course, just about the worst thing you can do to your loved ones is to not plan to avoid probate, or - worse - to trigger a conflict over who inherits what by leaving a document that is not clear.

Those are just a few of the reasons you want to work with an estate planning attorney rather than doing a DIY will online.

At Two Spruce Law, we excel at creating a trust or will that reflects your wishes and your values, and honors the estate that you’ve spent a lifetime creating.

For more information, we invite you to:

Read our Estate Planning 101—a reader-friendly source of general information about estate planning. Looking this over before your first meeting with attorney Patricia Nelson could save you an hour of time with the attorney, a savings of $330 dollars. It also introduces you to the vocabulary of estate planning (don’t worry, if you don’t have time to read it, Patricia will translate).

Fill out our Estate Planning Questionnaire—this will provide the attorney with details about your assets. Again, filling out the questionnaire before your appointment with Patricia will save you some of her time and therefore reduce your over-all cost. Do not let this questionnaire intimidate you. Just provide as much detail as you can without getting overwhelmed. It’s more important that Patricia have an accurate overview of your assets with rough values than it is for her to have fine detail like account numbers and values to the penny.